Nerlens Noel On Recruitment: A Kentucky Fan Offered Me His Wife

Nerlens Noel is considered one of the best high school prospects in the country, and is undoubtedly the best defensive big man that’s come out of high school since perhaps Greg Oden. Schools want him. Fans want him. Big-time basketball collegiate programs want him. Now the only question is what does the 6-10 shot blocker from The Tilton School in New Hampshire want?

He’s dwindled his schools down to three: Georgetown, Syracuse and Kentucky, and recently started penning a free agent/recruiting blog for ESPN detailing everything he was going through. In his most recent journal entry, Noel says he was in New Orleans over the weekend for the All-American Championships, and of course, that was the site of the Final Four with thousands of Kentucky fans littered all over the city. They hounded him, hassled him, showed him love and took LOTS of pictures. But some even went a little further.

Noel wrote:

Now, of course that had a lot to do with the fact that they were playing there, but I’m always just shocked at how dedicated Kentucky fans are. One man asked me if I wanted to take his wife home with me, ha ha. I couldn’t believe it. I was like, “Nah, I’m good,” but that’s just how insane the fans were down there. Great atmosphere.

Well, damn. I guess John Calipari isn’t the only guy down there who knows how to recruit. No wonder Kentucky loads up every year.

Noel plans on announcing his decision next Wednesday at the same time as the other top undecided recruit, Shabazz Muhammad. I’m hoping he sides with the school who’s been on him since the start: Syracuse.

But earlier today, Ben Roberts of The Lexington-Herald tweeted: “Gary Parrish says if UK is able to lure Shabazz from UCLA/Adidas, ‘It will be the most John Calipari/Nike thing ever done.'” If those two, widely considered the two best high school players in the country, both end up at Kentucky, we could be looking at a Kentucky repeat next year.